LONDON.- Fact and 180 Studios present Future Shock, a major new exhibition of leading international artists and collectives working at the cutting-edge of audio-visual technology, on view through 28 August 2022.

Blurring the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, Future Shock presents immersive installations that transform 180 Studios’ subterranean spaces through mesmerising and pioneering digital technology – from generative and interactive algorithms, AI, and 3D digital mapping, to spellbinding laser work, holographic projections, and ground-breaking electronic music.

Including numerous UK and world premieres, Future Shock features those pioneers at the apex of sound and vision who are redefining space to create a new kind of artistic experience:

UVA • Ryoichi Kurokawa • Caterina Barbieri • Lawrence Lek • Actual Objects • Weirdcore• Gener8ion • Ib Kamara • Gaika • Tundra • Hamill Industries • Nonotak Studio • Ben Kelly • Ibby Njoya • Object Blue & Natalia Podgorska

Ryoichi Kurokawa
subassemblies

Ryoichi Kurokawa is a Japanese artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Kurokawa’s works take on multiple forms such as installation works, recordings, and concert pieces. He composes the time sculpture with the field recordings and the digital generated structures, and then reconstructs architecturally the audio-visual phenomenon. In recent years, his works have been shown around the world at international festivals and museums including Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, the Venice Biennale, Palais de Tokyo and Sonar. In 2010, he was awarded the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Music & Sound Art category.

For this exhibition Kurokawa presents the UK premiere of subassemblies, a sit specific immersive cube projection with quadraphonic installation and 3D digital mapping that pursues the relationship between nature and human-made through a perspective of architectural scale.

Caterina Barbieri
Vigil

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer and musician who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound. Her current sonic research investigates the creative use of computation and complex sequencing techniques to explore the artefacts of human perception and memory, by ultimately inducing a sense of ecstasy and contemplation.

With an original electronic score by the acclaimed Italian artist and visuals by Ruben Spini, Barbieri’s work for Future Shock, Vigil, creates a total environment bringing together musical, visual and sculptural elements exploring the transformative power of sound and vision. A new commission by 180 Studios, the central element of the installation is a portal that symbolically connects to Barbieri’s idea of music as a gateway transcending time and space.

Lawrence Lek
Theta

London-based artist Lawrence Lek expands his ongoing 'Sinofuturist' cinematic universe with a futuristic short road movie, exploring alternative visions of technology, identity and nonhuman empathy. A new commission by 180 Studios, Theta is set in the aftermath of an environmental catastrophe, following the self-driving car Theta as it travels through remnants of SimBeijing, a smart city that has become a ghost town. This audio-visual experiment in CGI is produced entirely in Unreal Engine and manifested as an immersive single screen work, with an electronic soundtrack produced in collaboration with Kode9.

Actual Objects
Vicky

Actual Objects is an experimental multi-disciplinary studio based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 2019 by Rick Farin, Claire Farin, and Nick Vernet, Actual Objects create striking visuals that marry bleeding edge technology with a diverse range of references, both contemporary and traditional, in complex and interconnected systems.

A new commission by 180 Studios, Actual Objects’ installation Vicky imagines a world where branded data and gamified interactions define space rather than the old power structures, a desert-like environment with six human scale LED screens housing digital humans, triggered by motion senses, allow for the telling of multiple experiences.

Weirdcore
Subconscious

One of the UK’s leading audio-visual artists, London-based Weirdcore’s work is the result of years of experimental design and animation work that pushes the boundaries of consciousness and visual interpretation. A relentless collaborator, Weirdcore has reimagined the contemporary electronic landscape with projects for Aphex Twin, Arca, MIA, Yaeji and more.

At 180 Studios, Weirdcore will present Subconscious, an abstract journey into the inner mind, with its myriad of potential pathways and soundtrack by Apex Twin which will disorient visitors from reality.

UVA
Vanishing Point 3:1 , Topologies

UVA (United Visual Artists) is a London based collective founded in 2003 by British artist Matt Clark. UVA’s diverse body of work integrates new technologies with traditional media such as sculpture, performance and site-specific installation. Rather than material objects, UVA’s works are better understood as events in time, in which the performance of light, sound and movement unfolds.

UVA has been commissioned internationally by institutions including the Barbican, Manchester International, Royal Academy of Arts, Serpentine Gallery and Fondation Cartier. In 2019 UVA staged Other Spaces at 180 Studios, their largest solo show to date.




The exhibition features Topologies, a major new work by UVA and Vanishing Point 3:1, a new iteration of their iconic 2013 work. Topologies comprises of four kinetic sculptures that project single-colour planes of light, a work that continues in UVA’s explorations of sensory experiences through spellbinding laser works that reshape and redefine space, continuously transforming our sense of perspective.

Gener8ion
Neo Surf

A project from French filmmaker Romain Gavras and French dance producer Surkin. Set in 2034, Romain Gavras and Surkin’s triptych film installation is a tale of the future with no capital F, a future that uncannily looks like the present: an AI scanner capturing emotions, a fly-over alliance posing with a spaceship, teens enjoying flying surfboards. No sudden nonhuman threat, no end of the world, but a seemingly ‘normal’ environment, underpinned by a thread of slow violence, just like the one we are experiencing right now.

Gaika
Convo 2.2 Complex Confessional

Gaika Tavares is an experimental rapper, producer, visual and performance artist based in South London. His debut album, Basic Volume, was released in July 2018 by Warp Records. Tavares’ new site-specific work commissioned by 180 Studios – titled Convo 2.2. Complex Confessional - is a futuristic temple for inverted worship driven by a real time conversation with a GTP3 Bot called Herbie, merging industrial sculpture, AI, theology, sound and film.

Ib Kamara
The Queen is Coming

The directorial debut of internationally revered fashion image maker Ib Kamara is a collaboration with Sudanese-French designer Abdel El Tayeb and ShowStudio. The Sierra Leone-born and London-based Kamara invites us into his surreal world of girls dressed in the fashions of El Tayeb, a master of craftsmanship. The Queen is Coming (2022) is a personal endeavour for Kamara— a film with multiple meanings, reflecting the tensions he faced growing up.

Tundra
ROW

Tundra is a collective focused on creating spaces and experiences by exploring facets of interaction between audio/visual and human emotions. They specialise in multi-media performances and immersive audiovisual installations, with a multidisciplinary team that includes musicians, sound engineers, programmers and visual artists.

For Future Shock, Tundra will premiere ROW — comprising six holographic projectors, translating raw visuals driven by generative sound and data, from mathematics to twelve notes of the chromatic scale.

Hamill Industries
Vortex

Hamill Industries is a creative studio partnership composed of skilled film directors, inventors and mix-media artists Pablo Barquín and Anna Diaz. Their body of work focuses on marrying computerised, robotic and video techniques to explore concepts from nature, the cosmos and the laws of physics. Hamill Industries works across multiple mediums.

For Future Shock, Hamill Industries presents Vortex, an interactive light, smoke and sound installation that generates a series of smoke rings that travel through the space, soundtracked by Floating Points.

Nonotak
Daydream V.6

Nonotak is the collaboration between the illustrator Noemi Schipfer and the architect musician Takami Nakamoto. Together they create dazzling art installations that come alive in performance, fusing electronic music, strobe-lit, shadow-strewn lighting design, and multiple screens built into structures that surround the artists.

For Future Shock, the duo will stage the UK premiere of their AV installation Daydream, interweaving connections between virtual and physical space, immersing the audience into a contemplative experience.

Ben Kelly
Columns

Legendary designer of the Hacienda nightclub, Ben Kelly bridges the physical and virtual with a new site-specific iteration for 180 Studios of his installation Columns. Expanding on one of the fundamental architectural features of the Hacienda this new commission creates a sculptural mirror maze that interacts with a large-scale LED wall, accompanied by an original soundtrack from influential British electronic producer Scanner.

Ibby Njoya
Mustafa

Mustafa (2022) is British-Cameroonian artist Ibby Njoya’s first foray into the realm of digital art. Mustafa is named after the artist’s late father, a sculptor, who Njoya credits for his early curiosity with colour and dedicated interest in African artefacts. Mustafa serves as an opportunity for Njoya to thank his father for inspiring his practice and teaching him what it meant to be an artist.

Object Blue & Natalia Podgorska
What Melissa Said

Born in Tokyo, raised in Beijing and now resident in London, object blue is one of the most exciting new voices in experimental club music, her live sets blending techno and sound design.

Object Blue’s new commission for 180 Studios with partner artist Natalia Podgórska,What Melissa Says draws from the duo’s interests in the metaverse, club music and creative freedom. The installation imagines a world in which simulation theory is real, a far from ideal synthesis of virtual and physical space.